IMR | Lola and the Boy Next Door | Ugh…

I’m prefacing this with a sincere apology to anyone who genuinely likes this book. Because I don’t get it.

My brain works chronologically. So as much as I want to skip Lola and the Boy Next Door and go straight to Josh and Isla, I won’t.

Except now I want to. Really badly.

Perkins needs to work on her premises because they are enough to turn me away from the books if I wasn’t as persistent as I am.

And I thought Anna was nerdy and adorkable and corny and an idiot at the beginning of Anna and the French Kiss. And I’ve already talked about how St. Clair is just a little too perfect for my tastes.

Meet Lola. Girl who wants to cosplay. Girl who likes frilly things and yet is so obviously punk rocker. Girl with punk rocker boyfriend who is five years older than her. Girl with gay dads. Girl…who’s enforced quirkiness is driving me insane.

And I wasn’t even twenty pages in yet.

This book better be damn worth it because Perkins has this huge problem of setting up situations that just aren’t believable. It’s too forced. It’s not genuine.

The costuming does not help. Because guess what? It’s costuming. She’s not expressing herself, she’s hiding it. Behind wigs and Marie Antoinette dresses and combat boots. What is she actually like? Why is she looking for trouble? Because all I’m getting is airhead. Impulsive, try-hard, airhead.

I just can’t get over it. And I’m not liking Lola at all. I got the impression that she’s kind of easy at one point, seducing a guy 5 years older than her (therefore their relationship is technically illegal), and kissing Cricket at the age of 5? At age 5 I thought boys were gross.

Even Cricket seems a little too good to be true, and I’m a sucker for the intelligent, clever, sort-of-nerdy, engineer-type characters (hello, Leo Valdez)(and Christian from Once Upon a Marigold). And for some inexplicable reason he wants to get back together with Lola? I don’t know enough about him yet to actually make clear judgements, but none of the protags in this seem genuine.

(An irrelevant side note: It’s strange for me to keep reading “Cricket” because I was given that nickname in elementary school. My friends and I were a different kind of bug.)

But I have to admit to doing a tiny happy dance when I found out Lola and Anna work in the same theatre. They have a bigger role than I imagined. And it seems to be the only highlight so far.

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5 thoughts on “IMR | Lola and the Boy Next Door | Ugh…”

I felt the same way about Lola. I found Lola an annoying main character and her relationship with Max (I think that’s his name?) is not okay. I did end up finishing it, and it was cute at points but it was one of my least favorite books I’ve read. If you find that you already don’t like it 20 pages in, I wouldn’t keep reading, but that’s up to you. 🙂